Bob Woodruff

CBS is still searching for its replacement for Dan Rather, who left in March 2005. Senator Boxer claimed that she had made the motion not to challenge the outcome, but to “shed the light of truth on these irregularities.”. ABC's "World News Tonight" is ranked second in the Nielsen Media Research rankings, and has been fading a bit lately to NBC's first-place "Nightly News," anchored by Brian Williams. During the debate, not one Senator, either Democrat or Republican, argued that the outcome of the election should be changed by either court challenge or revote. Woodruff and his wife Lee were close to David Bloom, an NBC journalist who died of a blood clot during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and Bloom's wife Melanie accompanied Lee Woodruff to Germany and back. In the Senate, it was supported only by its maker, Senator Boxer, with 74 Senators opposed and 25 not voting. ^[7]. [17] Four people elected to the House had not yet taken office, and one seat was vacant.

Vogt is awake, mobile, and recovering. Not voting were 52 Republicans and 80 Democrats. Although a portion of his skull was removed, his friend and colleague Martha Raddatz reported that he is not believed to have suffered major disfigurement.^[6] As of February 4, 2006, Woodruff is being kept in a medically-induced coma to assist his recovery, and ABC News has temporarily assigned Good Morning America anchors Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer to alternate duties on the evening newscast as co-anchor with Vargas. It was opposed by 178 Republicans, 88 Democrats and one independent. Doctors are slowly bringing him out of induced coma and he is reported to have moved his arms and legs. In the House of Representatives, the motion was supported by 31 Democrats. Woodruff is currently being treated at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Because the motion was supported by at least one member of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, election law mandated that each house retire to debate and vote on the motion.

According to published reports, Woodruff and Vogt have been evacuated to the United States Army Medical Command hospital at Landstuhl, Germany overnight on Sunday, January 29.^[5] On ABC World News Tonight that evening, anchor Elizabeth Vargas talked about the dangers of reporting in a combat zone and wished Woodruff and Vogt well in recovery. At the official counting of the electoral votes on January 6, a motion was made contesting Ohio's electoral votes. ^[3] Tom Brokaw reported on the Today show that Woodruff had also undergone surgery to reduce brain swelling.^[4]. This recount was completed December 28, 2004, amid allegations of illegal recount procedures in many counties. military hospital in Balad and are recovering in stable condition. Although the overall result of the election was not challenged by the Kerry campaign, third-party presidential candidates David Cobb and Michael Badnarik obtained a recount in Ohio. Both men underwent surgery for head injuries at a U.S. After the election, some sources reported indications of possible data irregularities and systematic flaws during the voting process, which are covered in detail by the election controversy articles.

Woodruff sustained shrapnel wounds; Vogt was struck by shrapnel in the head and suffered a broken shoulder. Another permutation of this was “Anybody but Bush, Except for Kerry”, which gained popularity among disenchanted or secular Republicans, who were unwilling to vote for John Kerry. Both men were wearing body armor and protective helmets at the time. Bush without regard to the person's record or political views. Woodruff and Vogt were standing with their heads above a hatch, apparently filming a stand-up. These voters believe that anyone put into the Oval Office would do a better job as President than George W. 4th Infantry Division, travelling in an Iraqi armored personnel carrier. The driving force behind the movement was anger at the policies of the Bush Administration.

At the time of the attack, they were embedded with the U.S. Bush. ^[2]. It was a group of voters who would vote for “anybody” before they voted for President George W. ^[1] Woodruff had traveled with an ABC News team to Israel to report on the aftermath of the 2006 Palestinian elections, and then via Amman to Baghdad, so he could meet with troops before the State of the Union Address by President Bush. “Anybody but Bush” was an informal political movement during the 2004 US Presidential election. On January 29, 2006, Woodruff and Canadian cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured in an explosion from an improvised explosive device (IED) near Taji, Iraq, about 12 miles north of Baghdad. The Congressional Democrats who objected to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes relied on part on information about voting irregularities provided by observers working for the Cobb campaign.

He is not related to fellow television journalist Judy Woodruff. A statewide recount of the presidential vote was completed; however, some observers claim that the recount was conducted improperly, and illegally, and have filed a new lawsuit, which is currently pending. Before moving to New York in 2002, Woodruff worked at the ABC News London Bureau. After announcing their intention and soliciting donations, they quickly raised $150,000 to cover the state's required fee and other costs. During the initial invasion Woodruff reported from the front lines as an embedded journalist with the First Marine Division, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. Two of the third-party candidates, Badnarik and Cobb, cooperated in requesting a recount of the Ohio vote (although Cobb led the effort). He has also reported extensively on the continuing unrest in Iraq. Bush declared victory the afternoon of the same day.

Woodruff served as the anchor of World News Tonight Saturday and as one of ABC's top correspondents contributing reports to Nightline and other ABC News broadcasts. Nevertheless, after concluding that a recount would not change the election results, Kerry conceded defeat at about 11:00 EST that morning, and George W. duPont-Columbia University Award and the George Foster Peabody Award, two of the highest honors in broadcast journalism. Democrats' hopes rested on the approximately 135,000 provisional ballots that had yet to be counted. His international reporting on the fallout from 9/11/01 was part of ABC's coverage which was recognized with the Alfred I. As of the morning of November 3rd, the deciding state in the electoral vote count was Ohio, where Bush held a 136,000 vote lead. Since then, he has reported extensively on Europe and the Middle East. In Florida, for example, multiple lawsuits were filed even before the election, but few observers expected any of them to change the official result that Bush had outpolled Kerry by roughly 400,000 votes.

In 1999, he reported from Belgrade and Kosovo during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. These were considered unlikely to change the Electoral College result. As ABC's Justice Department correspondent in Washington in the late 1990s, Woodruff covered the office of Attorney General Janet Reno, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. In several states including Ohio, Colorado, Florida, and Nevada, there were lawsuits or other disputes about such issues as “voter challenging”, voter registration, and absentee ballots. [1]. Various states grappled with their own legal issues that could have affected the outcome of the vote, while both of the major political parties and a number of independent groups like the ACLU marshaled numbers of lawyers. He went on to work at television stations in Redding, California, Richmond, Virginia, and Phoenix, Arizona before ABC hired him in Chicago, Illinois in 1996. Election watchers and political analysts forecast a number of contested election results in a manner similar to the Florida voting recount of 2000.

In 1989, while teaching law in Beijing, he was hired by CBS News to work as a translator for Dan Rather during the Tiananmen Square uprising; a short time later he changed careers. Detractors claimed that this splitting would diminish Colorado's influence in the Electoral College, and the amendment ultimately failed, receiving only 34% of the vote. Before joining ABC, Woodruff was an attorney. Rather than assigning all 9 of the state's electors to the candidate with a plurality of popular votes, under the amendment Colorado would have assigned presidential electors proportionally to the statewide vote count, which would be a unique system (Nebraska and Maine assign electoral votes based on vote totals within each congressional district). from Colgate University in 1983 and a law degree from the University of Michigan. A ballot initiative in Colorado, known as Amendment 36, would have changed the way in which the state apportions its electoral votes. He earned a B.A. Not realizing that the law required the phrasing, some people viewing the ads reportedly questioned why Dean might say such a thing—such questions were easier to ask because of the maverick nature of Dean's campaign in general.

Bob Woodruff grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he graduated from the private Cranbrook Kingswood school in 1979. This law was not well known or widely publicized at the beginning of the Democratic primary season, which led to some early misperception of Howard Dean, who was the first candidate to buy television advertising in this election cycle. . Previously, television advertisements only required a written “paid for by” disclaimer on the screen. On January 29, 2006, Woodruff and a cameraman were injured in Iraq by a roadside bomb while on assignment; Woodruff is the first American news anchor to be hurt in a war zone. Advertisements produced by political campaigns usually included the statement, “I'm [candidate's name], and I approve this message.” Advertisements produced by independent organizations usually included the statement, “[Organization name] is responsible for the content of this advertisement,” and from September 3 (60 days before the general election), such organizations' ads were prohibited from mentioning any candidate by name. On January 3, 2006, Woodruff became co-anchor of World News Tonight with Elizabeth Vargas, replacing the late Peter Jennings. To distinguish official campaigning from independent campaigning, political advertisements on television were required to include a verbal disclaimer identifying the organization responsible for the advertisement.

Bob Woodruff (born 1961) is a television journalist. (There was some similar activity, although on a much lesser scale, during the 2000 campaign.). 2006 Palestinian elections. Many such groups were active throughout the campaign season. Hurricane Katrina. Examples of 527s include Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, MoveOn.org, the Media Fund, and America Coming Together. Operation Iraqi Freedom. Named for a section of the Internal Revenue Code, these groups were able to raise large amounts of money for various political causes as long as they do not coordinate their activities with political campaigns.

Death of Pope John Paul II. Because of the Act's restrictions on candidates' and parties' fundraising, a large number of so-called 527 groups emerged. Senator John Edwards campaign for 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The 2004 election was the first to be affected by the campaign finance reforms mandated by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (also known as the McCain-Feingold Bill for its sponsors in the United States Senate). Proponents of computer voting say that the intent of the voter can be recorded with greater certainty and accuracy than using paper ballots. Author Bev Harris, in her book Black Box Voting, describes in detail her opinion of the potential problems created by DRE systems.

One of the largest manufacturers of DRE voting systems is Diebold Election Systems, whose parent company also manufacturers ATMs. Machines which do not use a paper trail are called Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) systems. Others said that recounts would be nearly impossible with the machines and criticized the lack of a “paper trail”, which is included in many other trivial events such as grocery shopping or using an ATM. Many security analysts warned that computer voting terminals had a significant possibility of voter fraud or data corruption by a software attack.

Some states rushed to have new electronic voting systems operational for the 2004 election. [16]. states could refuse to allow them to observe the elections on various grounds; for instance, a state law may require observers to be registered voters from the area. electoral law is largely state law, individual U.S.

Because U.S. International observers faced a number of hurdles. The OSCE is not affiliated with the United Nations. The move was met by considerable opposition from Republican lawmakers [15].

The UN responded that such a request could only come from the official national executive. Representatives from the Democratic Party had sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking for the UN to monitor the elections. Earlier, some 13 U.S. In September 2004 the OSCE issued a report (PDF 168K) on US electoral processes.[14].

presidential election, although they had been invited in the past [13]. It was the first time the OSCE had sent observers to a U.S. At the request of the United States government, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sent a team of observers to monitor the presidential elections in 2004. Kerry:.

Bush:. The two major parties chose to focus their advertising on these states:. The following is list of the states considered swing states in the 2004 election by most news organizations and which candidate they eventually went for. However, all the swing states are important.

The upper Midwest bloc of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin is also notable, casting a sum of 27 electoral votes. In the afternoon Ohio's Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, announced that it was statistically impossible for the Democrats to make up enough valid votes in the provisional ballots, now reportedly numbering 140,000 (and later still estimated to be only 135,000), to win, and John Kerry conceded defeat. Therefore, the outcome of the election hinged solely on the result in Ohio, regardless of the final totals elsewhere. That scenario would almost certainly have resulted in a Bush victory, because Republicans control more House delegations.

Bush had preliminary leads of less than 5 percent of the vote in only four states, but even if Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico had all eventually gone to Kerry, a Bush win in Ohio would have created a 269–269 tie in the Electoral College, resulting in the House of Representatives voting to decide the winner, with each state, regardless of its population, casting one vote. Bush had established a lead of around 130,000 votes but the Democrats pointed to provisional ballots that had yet to be counted, initially reported to number as high as 200,000. The morning after the election both candidates were virtually neck and neck and it was clear that the result in Ohio, which along with two other states (New Mexico and Iowa) had still not declared, would decide the winner. As the final results came in, Kerry took Pennsylvania and then Bush took Florida, focusing all attention on Ohio.

These three “swing” states were seen as evenly divided, and with each casting 20 electoral votes or more, they had the power to decide the election. During the campaign and as the results came in on the night of the election there was much focus on Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Whether due to this campaign or other factors, the impact of Nader on the election's outcome ultimately proved inconsequential, as he received less than 1 percent of the national vote. These voters used slogans such as, “Anybody but Bush,” and, “A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.” A group of people who supported Nader in 2000 released a statement entitled Vote to Stop Bush, urging support for Kerry/Edwards in swing states.

Some voters who preferred Ralph Nader's positions over John Kerry's voted for John Kerry to avoid splitting the vote against the incumbent, claiming to be choosing the “lesser of two evils”. Opponents of Ralph Nader's candidacy often referred to vote splitting as the spoiler effect. While Ralph Nader and the Green Party ultimately support replacing the Electoral College with direct popular elections, both have also suggested that states instead use instant-runoff voting to select their presidential electors, which would partially address the issue of vote splitting. For instance, a candidate who won narrow pluralities in a significant number of states could win a majority in the Electoral College even though they did not win a majority or even a plurality of the national popular vote.

Such splits are of particular concern because most states assign the presidential electors they send to the Electoral College, to the candidate with the most votes (a plurality), even if those votes are less than 50 percent of the total votes cast—in such a situation, a relatively small number of votes can make a very big difference. Many Democrats blame Ralph Nader for splitting the vote in the 2000 presidential election when he ran as the candidate of the Green Party. Bush to win the 2004 election. Some supporters of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were concerned that the independent candidacy of Ralph Nader would split the vote against the incumbent, thus allowing the Republican presidential candidate George W.

Some older party-affiliation maps on Wikipedia use the opposite color coding, for historical reasons.). (This table uses the currently common Red->Republican, Blue->Democratic color association, as do the maps on this page. Bush received a net gain of seven electoral votes due to reapportionment. Each of these states was won by the same party in 2004 that had won it in 2000; thus, George W.

All states, except Nebraska and Maine, use a winner-take-all allocation of electors. Red states represent those won by Bush; and Blue states, those won by both Gore and Kerry. The following table shows the change in electors from the 2000 election. Electoral College in 2004 than in 2000, since the number of electors allotted to each state is equal to the sum of the number of Senators and Representatives from that state.

As a result, several states had a different number of electors in the U.S. With the completion of the 2000 census, Congressional reapportionment took place, moving some representative districts from the slowest growing states to the fastest growing. population is continuously shifting, and some states grow in population faster than others. The U.S.

A more complete breakdown is also available, including changes between 2000 and 2004. As of November 1, 2004, their tally showed the following:. The online edition of Editor & Publisher, a journal covering the North American newspaper industry, tabulated newspaper endorsements for the two major candidates. A partial list is given below, but it is by no means complete.

The results produced many interesting features. (Polidata, 2005). They may include an allocation of absentee/early votes which were not tabulated by district. These numbers are estimates based upon results collected from the 400 counties that contain a portion of more than one district.

Caveats: only a handful of states report the results by district. The 2004 presidential election was the first following the 2001–2002 redistricting phase of congressional apportionment. In 1996, there were 110 turnover districts. In 2000 there were 86 turnover districts.

This represents a continued decrease over recent presidential elections. Following the 2004 election, 41 districts of the 109th Congress were carried by Bush yet represented by a Democrat; 18 districts were carried by John Kerry yet represented by a Republican. House by a member of a party other than the winner of the presidential vote in the district. There were 59 “turnover” or “split” districts, i.e., those represented in the U.S.

At 255, the President won 27 more districts than the 228 he carried in the 2000 election. Bush won the popular vote in 255 of the nation's 435 congressional districts, a 75-seat edge over Democrat John Kerry’s 180. In his successful bid for reelection in 2004, Republican George W. This was apparently the result of a typographical error, and an amended electoral vote certificate with the correct middle initial was transmitted to the President of the Senate prior to the official electoral vote count.

New York's initial electoral vote certificate indicated that all of its 31 electoral votes for president were cast for “John L. Kerry of Massachusetts” instead of John F. Kerry, who won the popular vote in the state. It is worth noting that an Independence Party straw poll, which was published in lieu of an endorsement from that party, selected John Edwards for President, though there is no evidence to suggest that this is related to the Edwards electoral vote for President. It is not even known whether the vote for Edwards was deliberate or unintentional, although the Republican Secretary of State and several of the Democratic electors have expressed the opinion that this was an accident. Electoral balloting in Minnesota was performed by secret ballot, and none of the electors admitted to casting the Edwards vote for President, so it may never be known who the “faithless elector” was.

history that an elector had voted for the same person for both President and Vice President. (John Edwards' name was spelled correctly on all ballots for Vice President.) This was the first time in U.S. All ten electors in the state cast ballots for John Edwards for Vice President. The remaining nine electors cast ballots for John Kerry.

The Electoral College officials certified this ballot as a vote for John Edwards for president. One elector in Minnesota cast a ballot for president with the name of “John Ewards” [sic] written on it. Source: FEC. There, Kerry obtained 4,180,755 votes on the Democratic ticket and 133,525 votes on the Working Families ticket.
^(c) See “‘Faithless elector’ in Minnesota” below.
^(d) Candidates receiving less than 1/2000 of the total popular vote..

There, Bush obtained 2,806,993 votes on the Republican ticket and 155,574 on the Conservative ticket.
^(b) In New York, Kerry vote was the fusion of Democratic and Working Families parties. ^(a) In New York, Bush vote was the fusion of Republican and Conservative parties. (August 7, 2005). Official website of the National Archives.